Refraction
by Blackdresses13
Summary: When their parents are thrown from one world to another, Ventus, Sora, and Roxas are left to be raised by their parents' closest friends. When the times is right, they will travel the universe in search of their parents' memories to connect their pasts to the present. However, this is no easy task. Darkness haunts Roxas; naivety blinds Sora. Oh, Ventus? Well, he's gone.
It wasn't the way his classmates treated his brothers, but more of how he expected them to be treated. His talents included basic training and physics (the latter, of course, not very helpful in this case), but he still couldn't seem to drive them away. The constant, "Nothing personal," was getting old. He could only dust off his shorts and stick band aids on their knees and forearms before he would finally crack. Of course, that would take another decade, which is time he didn't really have.

Sometimes his friends would join the fight, bumping the bullies' shoulders in the hallways or flicking boogies at them. But Ventus had to admit, that wasn't enough. They needed a good pounding, but his conscience wasn't weak enough for him to cave in. Desperate times called for desperate measures in elementary school; and if one didn't want to be labeled a 'tattle-tale' for the rest of the week, less conventional steps had to be taken. He would risk the debts and penalties just to protect his brothers. If people were walking all over them now, high school would be a nightmare that he wouldn't be able to shield them from for more than two years.

The noble truth was clear to him (as he'd had experience before in handling this kind of nonsense.) One way to take down a bully, is to get a bigger bully to do it for you.

Little Ventus had to set out on his own one morning recess period. As opposed to running around on the field, he slipped behind the small shed on the playground, got down on his knees, and crawled down into, "The Lair of Malice." In truth, it wasn't much of a lair. The 6th grade class from two years prior had dug the spacey hole under the eastern shed when they were second graders. Five years later, once that class had graduated, it went from a casual hide-and-seek/hide-from-teach/meeting place to the most shady hole on campus (more literal than figurative). In short, the now 6th grade bullies had taken it over that year and had called, "unbreakable dibs," for the past four.

-

Three years ago, the PTA (parent takeover association [as it was called by the excommunicated families and uninvited teachers]), had pressured the school board into giving a morning recess period for all the grades at the same time. Their reasoning was never clear, but some said that if most of the teachers were out watching their students, that would leave certain unconventional teacher hideouts (which truthfully did not exist) from being used inappropriately by the staff.

In all seriousness, it was an attempt to prevent any rumors of sexual activities to be spread among the classes from then fifth grader Fenress Holt, whose parents had been caught going at it against their stove in the kitchen. The news had travelled from Fenress to his friends, who told their parents, who then spread fear throughout the PTA. In an effort to save face, the Holts claimed that Fenress had seen two teachers in the school kitchen having sexual intercourse against the stove and that he had adjusted the story to seem more believable at school (it was easy to pay off a fifth to keep quiet back then, especially when their parents were pushing over their son.) In any case, the PTA devised a horrible plan to strip the quality time between the teachers in their lounge to an uncomfortable twenty-five minutes in the blazing sun. This, obviously, would prevent any sexual affairs between the teachers and save the students from STDs and unwanted pregnancy ["Every moment in our child's lives will shape their ideas through puberty and adolescence." - President Rufus Shinra]

From the lies to the accusations to the "trauma" of having to mediate morning recess, our hero experienced several moments that would definitely shape his ideas through puberty and adolescence.

-

"What do you want?" Seifer Almasy was not one to waste words on the insignificant few that he ruled over at their school. So when he saw a short second grader with khakis a size too small and polo a size too big crawl into The Lair, mincemeat was not on the menu.

"Seifer doesn't waste time with babies, y'know? You better watch your butt." Rai was Seifer's sheep (there really isn't anything else to say.)

After dusting off his pants for the third time that day, Ventus plopped himself down in front of the only exit to the hole (Some would see this as a pointless action, but everyone at school knew that Rai Ovis had some of the most brutal sweat glands in history. It wasn't Rai's fault [as his then good friend Even had proved], so no one made fun of him [however, some claim that Seifer's death glares had prevented such nonsense.] , but if one wanted to prevent a river from sprouting in all of Rai's closed spaces, they would leave a window [or, in our case, a hole exit] open.) Despite Seifer's ridiculous glare in the attempt to scare Ventus, our hero knew exactly how he was going to say, do, and act during his encounter with these sixth graders. However, his chronic stutter did him no favors. "I-I-I n-need a f-fuh-favor." If he could slap himself, he would, but he had to stay cool. Self induced headaches was not a part of his plan.

"Seifer don't do nothing for free, yo."

"Never." Nobody cared about Fuu. She never spoke full sentences, but Seifer thought she was pretty and that her breasts were nothing to laugh at, so he'd proclaimed her his girlfriend. Fuu didn't care, as she didn't care for herself. As long as she had someone, she wouldn't care at all.

"If I w-wanted a freeb-b-bee I-I wouldn't h-h-have asked." Ventus was proud of himself for trying. As soon as this was over, he could go back to making sure his brothers were out of the sun.

"Well, shortstuff, what do you have for me?" It was just business for Seifer; that was all.

"G-gil a-a-a-and m-mags."

"Anyone famous?"

"Elle A-lux-zan-der-ree-a." Ventus had practiced pronouncing the pornstars name, but the stutter had ruined it for him. He still didn't mind though; the moment was over; it was time to move on.

"She's hot, yo. Seifer'll do it, right?" The sheep was warm and wanted to be sheared. It messed with its collar to try and create more airflow.

"Yeah, yeah whatever." He'd have to deal with Rai later (he'd need a shower and new clothes), but, for now, Seifer had a deal to make as seeing Elle Alexandra naked was something worth fighting for. "What do you want, skunk?"

Now, Ventus knew he wouldn't be able to articulate the whole shibang before recess was over. He'd asked his older cousin to write out everything, for legibility of course (our hero is perfectly capable of writing, just not very neatly), so he scrawled it out on the back of his Balamb Garden cafeteria napkin before heading out on an adventure. Ven knew it was tacky, but he didn't necessarily respect Seifer anyway. He needed some work done, and this was the best he could get. So, after digging in his pocket for two seconds, he uncrumpled the napkin, being sure to flash the Balamb symbol for recognition of effort, and passed it to Fuu, who would make the lesson short and sweet.

Fuu didn't care. She read it, summarized it, and threw it away. "Bodyguard," she said blandly, giving Seifer a nod.

Seifer raised an eyebrow at Ventus who, according to his plan, lifted his shoulders up to his ears and plopped them down again. He'd learned that from his cousin.

"Fine, fine. How long and for whom?"

Ventus had his cousin check the math for him four times. "Of th-the three m-mags, y-you have six-sixt-sixty puh-pages."

"I'm guessing sixty days maximum, small fry?"

"Y-yeah." Ventus was supposed to nod dramatically, but he was getting tired of following the big-kid agenda and was in need of a nap.

"Hand it over, yo." Rai put his sweaty hand in front of Ventus' chest with an uncomfortable look on his face. The second grader put the pornography in his hand first and the seventeen gil on top. Rai pulled his hand back, dropping half of the gil on the floor, and opened up one of the magazines. His jaw dropped an inch before Seifer snatched it from him.

"That's mine, Rai." He said with a grouchy look on his face. Turning back to Ventus, he said, "Who is it, shrimp?"

It was time to sell the coup. There was no way to wiggle his way out of the question no matter how much distrust he'd get from his brothers after school. It had to be now. Thank goodness he never stuttered when saying their names.

"My little brothers Sora and Roxas." Ventus waited for a laugh or two, but the sixth graders knew how often the kindergartener and first grader were picked on. If it wasn't the hair, it was the clothes. If it wasn't the clothes, it was the necklaces. If it wasn't the necklaces, their last name could be teased for at least ten seconds. By then, they'd probably go back to the hair before pushing down the five and six-year-old.

Fuu sighed and looked at the ground, her lavender hair shielding her eyes. Rai still had his mouth open, but he wasn't seeing the lady in his head anymore.

Seifer just sighed. "Ven, you know I would have helped out for free."

"Y-yeah, b-but they won't b-be as m-m-mad if I p-put d-down some work."

The laugh finally slipped from Seifer's lips as he nudged the boy with his foot, the casual signal of freedom to flee. Ventus saluted and crawled out of the hole. Standing up, he dusted off his pants yet again and stepped to the side of the shed to snoop out the trio's responses.

"He's so weird, y'know? Seifer, why'd you waste your time?"

"His mom is hot," Seifer droned.

"Liar." Fuu still didn't care.

"Yeah, man, tell the truth for once!"

Ventus heard another sigh from Seifer before he heard what sounded like a kick onto the wall he was leaning against. He laughed weakly and made heavy stomps to prove that he was now walking away from the shed.

Mission accomplished. Ventus had made a deal with the dirtiest boy in school. He would have to remember to thank that same cousin for letting him take the naked women magazines to school and showing him how to act and what words to say. Hayner was disgusting, there was no doubt about it, but he always pulled through for his little cousin.

Ventus walked across the field and onto the playground. He crawled under the "Night's Tower" (we'll be honest to admit that third graders cannot spell any better than their parents can takeover the school) and leaned against one of the wooden posts. He automatically felt one head lean on his shoulder and another plop down onto his lap.

"Where'd you go Ven?" Roxas shifted his eyes up to Ventus' from his angle on his shoulder. "Sora thought you'd never coming back."

Sora wiggled into a fetal position and held onto Ventus' pants. Ventus sighed deeply as he placed a hand on Sora's head and slowly passed his fingers through his jagged, spiky mane.

Leaning his head back against the post, Ventus saw an old spider web with a small piece of playground (as he called the wood chip ocean) dangling from it. At seven years old, Ventus was a lot of things. He was very intelligent, self-confident, and fairly positive. But he was also shy and scared of the future. If he told his brothers the truth, Roxas would be angry; Sora would probably scream for the next hour. It wasn't fair to him, but he also knew that he was allowed to cry, too. Well, he didn't really know out of wisdom, but his youthful instinct would cover for him and guide out some whiny tears.

Ventus never told his brothers about Seifer and his friends acting as subpar bodyguards for Sora and Roxas. He told his stuffed animals and his favorite pillow, but he couldn't tell them. He knew it wouldn't change much for them anyway, and, a decade later, none of that would matter anymore.


End file.
